Culture Festival
by Tetsui
Summary: I think the Culture Fest should have happened. So it did! 6 of 10


**Culture Festival**

**A P3 Fanfic**

**6 of 10**

**Author's Note:** Well, I was browsin' the old archive the other day, lookin' for fics where the Culture Fest had gone on for some reference points that could give me some ideas. Ya know what I found? Nothing. I'm serious. Nothing. Why has no one written about this yet? So, I'll be the one. Oh, and Kouko Shujin is the proper name for the female protagonist as far as I know. Hope y'all enjoy.

**-P3-**

It was Wednesday night. Everyone was in the lounge watching T.V., some hoping that the typhoon that was supposed to hit would hit now.

"And so it seems that the typhoon that had seemed like it hit mainland on Tatsumi Port Island has now moved slightly more southern. Instead, it shall be making land fall near the Ina-"

"Yahoo!" one Junpei Iori shouted at the top of his lungs. "The Culture Fest's still on!"

"There's no need to be _that_ excited, Junpei." Akihiko Sanada said to his energetic kouhai.

"But Senpai," Junpei said with a looks that seemed to only spell trouble, "It's the Culture Fest!" He began to strike odd poses. "Food! Games! Food! Prizes! And not to mention," he said sneaking a sly look at one Yukari Takeba, "A Maid cafe!"

"Ugghh" said Yukari as she squeezed her temples, "I was hoping you'd forgotten about that."

"Yuka-tan, please! Did you honestly think I would forget something like that?"

"No, I guess not." Yukari said with a sigh and a tired look, hanging her head a bit.

"Don't worry Yukari-chan," said one Kouko Shujin, placing her hand on her friends' back as to comfort her, "If Junpei-kun tries anything funny..." she said, motioning to the naginata that was leaning against the wall behind the main desk.

"Yes, Iori," one Mitsuru Kirijo said making a slight gesture with her hand, "I _do_ hope you don't plan on doing anything improper."

Junpei seemed to shrink under the combined gaze of the two females. He looked around for support from his companions. Akihiko was just trying to stay away; Shinjiro Aragaki didn't want anything to with this, as he knew how dangerous Mitsuru could be; Ken Amada was too young to be involved in, Aigis seemed indifferent to the whole thing, and Koromaru was a dog, so his gaze went to their leader, who was sitting in a nearby chair drinking something that looked like coffee.

"Hey, Minato! What do you think about this?" Junpei said with a slight crack in his voice.

Minato Arisato simply took a sip from his cup, set it down, looked at Junpei and said, "No comment."

They didn't go to Tartarus that night.

**-P3-**

The next day, after school let out, Ms. Toriumi came up to Minato, Kouko, Yukari, Junpei, and Aigis for help with setting up the decorations for the Culture Festival. Minato and Kouko had to decline as they had duties with the Student Council today and Yukari had to help the Archery club, so Junpei and Aigis helped put up decorations down the hall. "Lucky." Junpei said as the three left the classroom.

In the Student Council office, Hidetoshi was going on another spiel about how everyone's efforts were not going into the cigarette case enough. After he finished, Mitsuru stepped up.

"Alright everyone, as you all know, this Saturday is the Culture Festival. We need volunteers to walk around the school on patrol, looking for anything that may be considered, 'inappropriate.' Do we have any volunteers?"

A two or three hands went up, including one Chihiro Fushimi, so Minato raised his hand as well.

Mitsuru looked at everyone who raised their hands. "Hmm, we'll need a few more people. I will be placing a volunteer sheet outside the room to see if we can get any more people. Is there any further business?" No one raised anything. "Alright then. Dismissed."

**-P3-**

After everyone had left, Minato approached Chihiro at the school gates. "Hey, wait up!" He called out to her. She stopped, turned around, and seeing it was Minato, smiled gently.

"Ah, Minato-kun. I thought you had already left."

"No, I was looking for you actually. I thought we were going to the Culture Fest together, Chihiro." He said looking at bit disappointed.

She looking down a bit. "I'm sorry Minato-kun, but when Kirijo-senpai asked for volunteers, my hand just went up automatically. I didn't mean too."

"It's fine," he said with a sigh. "Please don't look like that. You know I hate you see you down." He said gently cupping her chin in his hand, lifting her head up as to look at him.

Chihiro blushed gently and took a step back. "Minato-kun, we're in public!" She said quietly.

"Are you still _that_ embarrassed by me?" Minato said with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"N-no! It's just..." Chihiro said lowering her head again and shuffling her feet.

"Hmm, I know!" Minato said suddenly. He grabbed Chihiro by the hand and began pulling her behind him.

"W-where are we going?" She asked.

"I'm taking you on a date." He said with a smile. "We haven't been on one in a few weeks and the movie theatre has a movie marathon today."

"O-okay, but you don't have to pull me!"

Minato let go and they walked the rest of the way side-by-side.

**-P3-**

When they arrived at the movie theatre, the place seemed rather deserted, which was odd because there was always people there, no matter what movies they were hosting. It seemed today's marathon included mainly foreign films, most of which Minato could translate pretty easily, but he wondered if Chihiro would be interested. When he asked, she replied with an "I haven't seen some of these yet." So he went ahead and bought tickets.

When they entered the building, Minato could have swore he saw Kouko walk into the back alleys in the distance, but he knew she could take of herself. 'It's like she carries that damn naginata everywhere with her. Where does she put it?'

Ignoring this line of thought, he and Chihiro went into their theatre.

**Evening**

After walking Chihiro home from the movies, Minato went back to the dorm. He was greeted by Ken who was in the lounge working on homework. "Need any help?" he offered. "No, I'm okay. This isn't that hard a subject." he answered, idly waving his pencil in the air. "Well, if you do, be sure to come to me before you ask Junpei." "Noted. Oh, and Kirijo-san told me to tell you that the console is messing up again." he said as he went back to work.

Listening to his music and not really paying much attention, he accidentally bumped into Kouko on the stairs, knocking them both down. "Oh, sorry, Kouko-chan."

"It's fine, it's fine. Help me up?" she asked extending her hand.

"Yeah." Minato pulled her back onto her feet, but he noticed she winced slightly and leaned on her left leg. He looked down and saw she had it wrapped in bandages. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Got in a bit of an...argument with some of the punks by the station." she explained nonchalantly while checking her pockets.

"Ah, so that _was_ you. What were you doing back there?"

"Nothing really. Just helping out a friend. Dang it, where is it? Hey, have you seen a small silver pocket watch?" she asked with a bit of frustration in her voice.

"No, can't say I have. I only just got back."

"Okay, thanks anyway. Oh, wait, there it is." she said as she went down a few steps and picked up something metal. "Phew, wouldn't want to lose this." She then went downstairs.

He went up to the Command Room and took a seat at the console. He went though the usual series of things he had to do, it took about an hour or two usually so he had already told Fuuka that they weren't going to Tartarus tonight. 'I sometimes wish she would help me with this stuff so it wouldn't take so long.' he thought offhandedly. He flipped the surveillance switch and saw there was a new recording. He pressed the button and saw it was from tonight. 'Odd, these things are usually a few days old.'

In the frame was Shinjiro. It seemed to be in the lounge. Ken must have finished his homework because he was no longer down there. Kouko walked in and took a seat n the chair next to where he was sitting. She pulled out the metal object Minato had seen her pick up on the stairs. When Shinjiro saw it, his eyes widened.

"Where did you find it?" he voice having a very uncharacteristic surprise to it.

"It was in the back alleys near the train station. One of the guys there had found it."

"They didn't hurt you did they?" he asked, showing genuine concern.

"Not really." she said motioning to her bandaged leg, "Although I probably won't be able to go to practice for a few days."

"The bastard! I'll kill 'im! What'd he look like?" Shinjiro said standing up, fists clenched.

"Why are you reacting like that? It's just a sprain. It'll be healed up in a few days, good as new. Here." she said, handing him the object.

He looked down at it in his open hand for a few moments before looking back at Kouko.

"Why'd you do this?"

"When you talked about your watch, it seemed important to you."

"...Thanks." Shinjiro seems to calm down. "Hey, do you think you could come with me for a moment? I wanna talk to you about something."

"Sure."

The video ends as they leave the dorm.

"Hmm...I don't know why, but I feel this is important." Minato says as he overwrites that video with current footage. After that he goes to bed.

**-P3-**

Now it was Friday, the day before the Culture Fest. Everyone seemed to be in full gear with preparations. After school, Minato went out to the practice field and met up with Kaz and Yuko, who were busy carrying large boxes of decorations. When he opens the door for them, Kaz steps wrong and nearly drops his box. Minato catches it and sets it on the ground to check on his friend.

Kaz was on one knee, clutching his bad leg. His face seemed to be clenched in pain.

"I'm going to get the nurse!" Yuko said as she ran off.

This had happened a few times before, so Minato knew what to do. He got Kaz to let go of his leg, and began to massage the area where his hamstrings were. Mr. Edogawa and Yuko got back eventually with a gurney. When they got him to the nurses' office, they had to sit outside while he was being treated.

Minato sat with his head hanging and Yuko looked like she was about to cry.

"Idiot. He's such a stupid idiot. He knows he can't lift things like that for a long time. I should have taken both boxes, then he wouldn't be in pain right now." she was muttering. At this point she had begun crying and wiping the tears with her sleeve.

It was about half an hour before Mr. Edogawa came out of the room.

"Okay, he should be fine now. He's resting now, but I highly advise that he not put any more additional stress on his leg. I'd say he'll need to be on crutches for at least a month, but we'll need a more professional opinion on this, so I'm going to be contacting his parents on this. But, for now, he should be fine."

Yuko let out a sigh of relief at the news. Mr. Egogawa went back into the office to call Kaz's parents. Yuko seemed to relax immensely.

"You really do care a lot about him, don't you?" Minato said.

"Yeah," she said, her face looking thoughtful, "He's always been like this, always doing things he knows he can't to get stronger. That's one of the reasons I took this job in the first place. Someone's gotta look out for him, right?" she says with a chuckle, but is replaced with a frown. "One day he's not gonna stop at his limits and drop dead."

She stays silent for a bit after that. Then, suddenly, she looks up, slightly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Minato-kun! I didn't mean to unload all this stuff on you!" she says waving her hands in front of her frantically. "Just, forget what I said."

Minato lets out a small laugh at this.

SMASH

Thou hast strengthened a bond

The Strength has reached Rank 6

"Ya know, if you're so worried about, why don't you tell him yourself?" Minato asked tilting his head to the side a bit.

Yuko lets out a small laugh. "No way! It's way too embarrassing! Besides...I don't know he'd react..." she said quietly.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, nothing." she said. "Well, it's getting pretty late. I'm going home."

Yuko picked up her bag, took one last look at Kaz and left. Minato decided to head back to the dorm at this point.

**-P3-**

Minato got back to the dorm and saw a bicycle was out front.

"Huh, the chairman must be here." he said offhandedly.

He was about to open the door to the dorm when a familiar voice shout, "It's because I love you!"

He took a peek at what was going on and saw Kouko and Shinjiro standing next to the sign-in sheet. He turned around with a small smirk on his face.

"I wonder if Tanaka's at the mall today."

He wasn't. So Minato spent his night at the Chagall Cafe. His Charm increased another level because of this.

**-P3-**

Finally, it was Saturday, the day of the Culture Fest. After classes were done with, Minato met up with Chihiro and they began their "patrol" around the school.

Their first stop was the haunted house put on by 1-3. It wasn't much to sneeze at, but Chihiro seemed genuinely frightened by the exhibit, and that meant that she was staying very close to Minato, which he didn't mind very much.

After that, Chihiro seemed to about to have a panic attack so they went goldfish catching. Her eyes seemed to light up when she caught two in one try.

It was a little past lunch time at this point, so they stopped by the maid cafe that the Archery club was putting on. Chihiro was hesitant at first, but after her stomach began to growl as well, she gave in pretty easily. Unfortunately, Yukari had been assigned to their table.

"Hello!" she said in a cheery voice, obviously for show. "Welcome to our cafe. Today's special is rice porridge."

"Heh, don't tell me you wrangled Fuuka into this, too" Minato said jokingly.

Yukari at this point recognized who she was serving.

"Minato-kun! What are you doing here?"

"We were hungry. And plus, I wanted to see this place for myself. I have to say, the costumes aren't as impressive as Mitsuru-senpai's maids."

"We?" At this point Yukari noticed Chihiro sitting at the table. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't notice you."

"It's alright. It happens." Chihiro says politely. "Um, I guess I'll just have some curry."

Yukari marks this down. "And you...sir."

"Well, I've actually _had_ Fuuka's rice porridge so I'll have that."

She marked this down as well. "Coming right up. I'll be back in a second." Then she left.

"So who was that?" Chihiro asked.

"Oh, Yukari? She's just one of my friends. She also happens to live in my dorm." Minato said nonchalantly.

"Hmm. Well, she seems nice." Chihiro says with a smile.

"Yeah, but wait til she gets mad. Completely different person."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but other than that, she's a pretty reliable friend."

"And Kirijo-senpai has maids?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

"Yeah. I didn't believe it at first either. But yeah, maids."

After a few minutes of talking Yukari came back with their food. "Enjoy!"

"Itadakimasu!"

The curry Chihiro ordered turned out to be hotter than she expected and she burned her self when she took a bite. The rice porridge was a bit cold so Minato let her take a bit of that while she waited for hers to cool down. It was definitely of Fuuka origin. She had actually gotten pretty good in the month that Minato had been helping her learn how to cook.

After they finished there everything seemed to start shutting down. The only thing that seemed to still be open were the pageants, and neither wanted to see them. They eventually wound up doing what they were supposed to be doing in the first place, monitoring the school. Unfortunately this meant they had to split up and Minato found himself watching over the cross-dressing pageant even though he didn't want to be there. Something about the prospect of the whole thing made his skin crawl a bit. Especially with the winner. Let's just say...they put on a beanie later.

**-P3-**

Later that night Shinjiro and Kouko didn't come home until after the Dark Hour passed, Minato just spent the entire night studying for exams next week, leaving a reminder of his calendar to go to Tartarus the next night.

That night, an unexpected monsoon hit Tatsumi Port Island hard and lasted until following week and ended on the full moon.

But that's another story.

**Fin**

**Author's Note:** Well, I hope y'all liked that! And remember, reviews make me write faster!


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